Meditation for my sanity

My journey with meditation has been a long one, and one that I wish I could say I sit down and do religiously every day for 20 minutes. But I don’t. I started meditating about 10 years ago, pretty much the same time I started learning more about alternative therapies. I found that through meditation I got a lot of clarity about different ideas, I found a place of stillness, and a way to connect with my spiritual side.

Now I try to meditate a few times a week, and I like to switch between guided meditations, or focusing on breath and clearing my mind of thoughts. The guided meditations that I use are on the Hay House Meditation Podcast.

There are so many to choose from depending on what you fancy working on at that time. Relaxation before sleep, chakra clearing, regression, grounding etc. They are all under half an hour and take you on a journey of connecting with yourself. When I first started all that I used were guided meditations as I found that was the most easiest to learn how to clear my mind, and learn how to become aware of my energetic body, and most importantly how to ground myself.

Meditating just by focusing on the breath can be very powerful. Think about all the women who only use the power of breath to endure labour and birth. It really is a powerful tool, that if done correctly can transform your body. Instead of shallow breathing into the top of your chest you want to inhale deeply down into your belly so that as you inhale your belly expands. This is done slowly over the count of 4, then pause before you exhale for another count of 4. As you start to slow your breathing down, you will probably be able to increase your count. Once you are thinking about your breathing it’s hard to start letting other thoughts into your mind.

Starting my day with meditation puts me in a good, positive head space for the rest of the day. Sometimes I like to repeat positive mantras to myself, this is a great way of sending yourself some self- love. Ending the day with a meditation can be a lovely way to relax before falling asleep, and generally if I start a meditation in bed at night, I don’t finish it because it just sends me to sleep. But an evening meditation to clear yourself of any negativity of the day, and being grateful for the positive things is a nice way to end the day.

There are many different modalities of meditation out there for you to try, so find something that works for you and that you’re comfortable with, starting off with just a few minutes a day. I prefer doing it sat at home, others prefer being out in nature, in a yoga class, or in a group space learning mindfulness. Whichever way suits you, you can still reap all the benefits of the peacefulness and hopefully keep your own sanity intact!